The King is continuing his cancer treatment but the prognosis is now encouraging enough to ensure that aides have begun planning his diary for 2026.
The 76-year-old monarch, who has already undertaken a series of official engagements in London, Norfolk and Scotland in January, has a busy diary ahead. He will return to the international stage on 27 January when he joins world leaders at a sombre ceremony in Poland marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.
Prince Harry, left, with mayor of Pasadena Victor Gordo, right, and a unidentified woman at a home that was destroyed during the LA wildfires (Photo: MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-Ne)
In between criticising Facebook owner Meta for stopping fact-checking and helping friends displaced by the Los Angeles fires that have threatened to spread up the coast to his and Meghan’s $29.6m (£24.3m) home in Montecito, Harry, 40, is prepping for a long awaited blockbuster legal case in London, beginning next Tuesday.
Why should that worry the King? Well, Harry wants to expose what he believes were shabby backroom deals between the Palace and the Murdoch organisation. He has previously accused his family or their aides of trading private information about him in return for favourable treatment of others, including Queen Camilla.
King Charles on a visit in Scotland this month. Aides have begun planning his diary for 2026 (Photo: Jane Barlow/Pool via AP)It is the source of some tension between father and son, along with the prospect of a second case in April in which Harry will appeal against a High Court ruling dismissing his challenge to the Home Office over its refusal to automatically allow him and his family police protection when they come to Britain, and then a case against the publishers of the Daily Mail in January next year in which he accuses the newspaper of hacking his phone. Associated Newspapers, which owns the Daily Mail, has always denied involvement in unlawful practices.
Sally Bedell Smith, a distinguished American royal biographer, said his son’s decision to sue the Government in the police protection case had put the King in an embarrassing position. There may also be trust issues in The Sun case after Harry’s earlier disclosure of family conversations. “There is always the suspicion that Charles will say something that could be used by Harry,” she said.
Hugh Grant, Catherine Tate and Sir Elton John have reached out of court settlements after pursuing The Sun newspaper
Harry, however, and the Labour peer have resisted attempts by NGN to settle also, insisting they want their day in court to expose what they say are the worst practices of the Murdoch press.
Harry has publicly acknowledged he will now indeed have to pay Murdoch’s legal fees as well as his own and any damages won will be dwarfed by the legal bill “100 times over even if or when we win”, he told The New York Times DealBook summit last month.
“The goal is accountability. It’s really that simple,” Harry said last month. “I know why people have settled. They’ve settled because they’ve had to settle. So therefore one of the main reasons for seeing this through is accountability, because I am the last person that can actually achieve that, and also closure for these 1,300 people and families.”
Harry is expected to have four days in the witness box later in the trial in mid to late February facing questioning about his specific claims that he was the victim of unlawful information gathering by representatives of The Sun from 1996 to 2011.
Prince Harry is expected to appear in thr witness box later in the trial (Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty)They will claim that it could not have happened without the knowledge of senior executives and, to the disappointment of Murdoch’s lieutenants, they have also been given time to explore the claim that thousands of emails were destroyed unlawfully on the orders of bosses at News International, the former company overseeing the papers, between 2010 and 2011.
Harry has cited 30 articles and 20 incidents between 1996 and 2011 in which he claims that 16 private investigators and 23 journalists invaded his privacy. Watson alleges unlawful information gathering and phone hacking from 2009 to 2011. NGN denies that any of its titles ever hacked Watson and will argue his claim is brought out of time.
Harry has publicly acknowledged he will have to pay Rupert Murdoch’s legal fees (Photo: Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images)Perhaps tellingly, neither side would comment this week on mounting speculation that a settlement is being discussed but both insisted they were still preparing for trial. “NGN’s case will involve a range of relevant witnesses to defend the case, including current and former employees,” a spokeswoman for the publishers said, adding that Harry’s claim would be fully defended, including on the grounds that it is brought out of time.
But the Duke is on a bigger crusade to shame sections of the British media and seek what he sees as justice from his family and the Royal Household. It is likely he would also want a deal with the Government to restore his police protection, something unlikely to be in the power of either Murdoch or his father to fix.
But his key adviser remains his principal private secretary, Sir Clive Alderton, nicknamed The Wasp in Harry’s memoir Spare and described as “lanky, charming, arrogant”. Last November, Princess Diana’s biographer Tina Brown claimed that Sir Clive was considering retiring. It has led to speculation that his departure could clear the way for a reconciliation between father and son.
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